When you make a first record as accomplished as Violet Delancey’s 2016 debut When The Clock Strikes Midnight, you might not feel a need to deviate. But Delancey was feeling restless heading into the making of her sophomore release Columbia Road. It led her down another musical path. “I really knew that I wanted to go in another direction,” Delancey told CultureSonar in a recent interview. “With the first record, the producer and I had talked about the Hot Band sound [the collective that backed Emmylou Harris on many of her classic albums]. And I felt like it relied really heavily on that reference, which was great for that record. But I think I felt a little inhibited by trying to match that style. I was imagining something that was going to be a little bit less restrictive for the next record. I wanted to master songwriting and the country/roots style really helped me learn a lot about that. But that doesn’t match what I feel creatively in general.”